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Government Shutdown

Will there be another government shutdown? Trump says maybe but many lawmakers say no way

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is fond of saying there’s nothing good about the second kick of a mule.

After the beating Republicans took during the 35-day government shutdown that ended last week – and the possibility of another shutdown looming in three weeks – McConnell, R-Ky., slightly altered his folksy aphorism Tuesday to drive home the point that GOP lawmakers aren’t eager to go through that again.

“There certainly would be no education in a third kick of the mule,” McConnell said. “I don’t like shutdowns. I don’t think they work for anybody, and I hope they will be avoided.”

Congressional Republicans and Democrats agree on at least one thing as they begin three weeks of negotiations over border security: They don’t want to see another government closure.

"No more shutdowns," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "President Trump touched a hot, hot stove, and hopefully, he won’t do it again.”

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Polls show most Americans blame President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown – the longest in U.S. history. But lawmakers from both parties are reeling from its impact.

The standoff was caused by a budget impasse triggered by Trump's demands for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Democrats argued that a wall would be costly and ineffective, and they refused to give him the money.

The shutdown finally ended late Friday when the White House and congressional leaders struck a deal to reopen the government through Feb. 15. The agreement contained no new money for a border wall, but it did call for a bipartisan conference committee to spend the next three weeks negotiating ways to secure the southern border.

Though the government reopened, Congress hasn't resolved the border security standoff.

That committee, made up of appropriators from the House and Senate, was expected to meet Wednesday afternoon.

Trump warned that if the committee is unable to reach an agreement to fund his border wall, the government will shut down again Feb. 15 or he will declare a national emergency to get the money for the barrier.

"There is a building consensus on both sides of the aisle that shutdowns don’t make sense and that we ought to put legislative prohibitions in place to keep us from ever shutting down again," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

A government shutdown is “a pox on all of our houses,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who said he believes Democrats want to avoid that as well.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said he hopes the standoff convinced Republicans that a shutdown should never be used as a negotiating tactic.

“Yes, we have a broken immigration system," he said. "Yes, we need comprehensive immigration reform. Yes, we should fix it in a bipartisan way. But we can never have a mature conversation about these tough issues in the midst of a reckless shutdown. We hope that question is now closed.”

Even before the agreement to reopen the government was reached, lawmakers were growing impatient. The day before, when the Senate failed to advance bills to reopen the government, six Republicans broke with their party, voting to advance a Democratic measure that would have reopened the government temporarily without money for a wall. 

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders insisted Monday the administration doesn’t want another government shutdown, but she did not rule it out.

“The president doesn’t want to go through another shutdown,” she said. “That’s not the goal. The goal is border security and protecting the American people. Ideally, Democrats would take these next three weeks to negotiate in good faith, as they’ve indicated they would, and come up with a deal that makes sense, that actually fixes the problem, so we don’t have to go through that process.”

Josh Holmes, McConnell's former chief of staff, said it's hard to imagine a second shutdown being more productive than the "stalemate" during the first go-round. He said the GOP position depends on what Democrats do over the next three weeks of negotiations.

"I think there’s a lot more sympathy from Republicans for the president if we go another three weeks and Democrats don’t move off the dime here," he said.

House Republicans are queasy over the thought of another government shutdown, but many were not willing to put the onus on Trump. They said it was up to Democrats to make sure it didn't happen.

“I don’t want to see another government shutdown, and hopefully, that means Democrats are going to finally get serious about getting an agreement on border security,” House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., told USA TODAY. 

“I hope there’s no appetite to shut this down again,” said Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., a centrist who co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and has met with the president on the issue of border security.

Reed said that if Congress isn't able to cut a deal at the end of three weeks, lawmakers should do extremely short-term funding bills (24 or 48 hours) to ramp up pressure and force a deal without putting federal employees out of work.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., offered words of advice to Trump as the border security negotiations take place.

“Stop threatening to shut down government again just to gain points with your base," she said. "We are better than that."

More:What was the economic cost of the government shutdown, and what comes next?

More:By the numbers: How the government shutdown is affecting the US

More:Faces of the shutdown: Deal to end standoff comes as federal workers' hardships grow

 

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